Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, guys, Jason Leonner here.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
This is the podcast for Jason Lenner and Filtered.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
I'm really grateful to be with you here today.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
If you haven't had a chance, please do go onto
my Apple podcast and drop me a review, give me
a rat and all that stuff. But it means a
lot and I really appreciate it. But what I am
here to talk with you about today is, you know,
Sony's announcement of their new pocket camera, the RX one
R Mark three. I did a video on this, but
(00:28):
I wanted to expand upon the topic a little bit.
How much is too much? I still am a Sony shooter.
I'm not trying to dog on Sony. But one of
the things that really appealed to me was Sony when
I switched from Nike on to Sony over a decade ago,
was they seem to speak to the normal photographers out there,
guys and gals like you and me. They would speak
(00:52):
to us through their products. They would speak to us
through listening to us coming out with a freaking camera
that is the same thing that you would out that
you released over a decade ago with the RX one
R Mark two, and then just changing out the guts
of it and then throwing it out, throwing it out
(01:13):
to the marketplace for fifty one hundred dollars plus tax
plus whatever, is honestly so out of touch and so outrageous.
It it makes me say, what in the world are
you guys doing over there? Anybody buying this is purely
and utterly wasting their money. Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
And I don't know other than the.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Flex factor of it, I don't know why anybody would
do that. Where do you draw that line? Where do
you draw that line as a photographer, as a creative,
When do you have enough gear?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
When is too much? Literally too much?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
As somebody who you know, switched from Nikondo Sony and
a lot of you out there listening if probably if
you've been doing it long enough, you've probably migrated from
one system to another, and you know that that is
very expensive. Well, when you think about something like, you know,
the gear that we've had coming out, you know, over
the last couple of years with Sony, I'm not saying
(02:07):
Sony's the only one that does this. I'm just saying
that that's what I know. But when you look at
all of it, you know, Sony and the the cameras
that they've offered. There's been nothing that has been major
in many, many years in my opinion. Yeah, we got
global shutters, and we got this and that, but everything
that they seem to release is just a niche kind
(02:28):
of a camera, like the RX one R Mark three.
There's nothing that there's broad appeal to the masses. They
either come out with the R A seven R five
and they go super high on the megapixels because they're
trying to compete with like Fuji and their medium format
cameras well, for goodness sakes, come out with a damn
medium format camera, Sony.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
You just spitting out full frame.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Cameras that have high megapixel counts as not the same
as a medium format camera. Not to mention the fact
they would open up a whole new revenue stream for
you potentially because people would have to buy new lenses.
The biggest problem they have now is it's that is
that the phones, the smartphones that are sitting in all
of our pockets, have really put an enormous dent in
(03:13):
what camera companies can do from a market standpoint, from
a penetration standpoint, from a saturation standpoint. And if that's
the case, if they can't really attract any new buyers.
If they can't increase their market share, if they can't
get you know, mirrorless or DSLRs, We'll forget DSLRs. If
they can't get mirrorless in the hands of people who
(03:34):
previously didn't have a mirrorless camera, that's going to be
a sign of a.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Serious revenue problem for these companies. So what do they do?
They come out with gimmicks.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
And the only thing I can think of with the
RX one R Mark three when it comes up at
fifty one hundred dollars, is they almost priced it to
where was so ridiculous it tricks people into buying it.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
One of the questions I get asked more often than
not is Jason, what are you currently shooting with?
Speaker 1 (04:00):
And it's the Sony A seven four.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I still think that that is the best bang for
your butt camera out there period. I do thirty six megapixels.
It hits the sweet spot, it performs really well. There's
a lot of great things about that camera, and it's
why that's that's in my hands.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
I recently went out. I went to Los Angeles and I.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Did a shoot with a very lovely model named Jules Bunny.
And I purposely went out and did what I call
a crappy gear shoot. Now, somebody's gonna watch this and
say this isn't crappy gear. But when I tell you,
you know what we're looking at, I think by today's standards,
most people would consider it.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Quote unquote crappy gear.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I shot this with the Sony A nine, not the
A nine to two or that A nine to three,
but this original A nine. Now that was a game
changing camera, right we're talking about that come out what
you know, six seven years ago. And then I shot
it with the original Sony Zeis thirty five millimeters lens,
the original workhorse. I think I shot a few shots too,
if I'm not mistake, with the G Master eighty five.
(05:02):
Those were also the original G Master, not the updated
version of the G Master. I did that because I
wanted to show.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
What can be done with that gear.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Furthermore, when you look at the lighting that we have
out there, I shot that with quote unquote crappy lighting.
I shot it with the Flashpoint Explore six hundred as
well as with the old Westcott Halo. You guys remember
that I took the Westcott Halo. I fed it through
the bracket on the old Explore six hundred that has
(05:35):
like scratches in it. The screen is, you know, halfway gone.
And I did a shoot just two weeks ago in
Los Angeles and the shots are fire.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
I know.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
We talk about and we say all the time how
it's not the geartt's the photographer, And that is so true.
Now gear has to reach a certain level of quality.
To produce a certain level of quality. There are things
that I can still do with my sony and the
flash that I cannot do with my phone, especially as
it relates to portraiture and off camera flash. But there
(06:08):
are other areas landscape photography, videography, filming that honestly you
can do and I do major projects with just my
phones or drones or things of that nature. So anytime
you were purchasing a piece of gear, the one question
that needs to run through your mind is this, what
is my realistic ROI for this piece of gear. If
(06:30):
it's just fun kicks and giggles for you, buy whatever
you want, who cares. But if you are looking to
generate income from being a photographer, ask yourself that question
long and hard.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
What do I really expect to get from this piece
of gear.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Recently, I went out and I shot with the Sony
A seven R five. I borrowed my buddy's camera, and
I also was messing around with to Sony fifty to
one fifty as well as the Sony twenty eight to
seventy lens. I'll see here. They're both great lenses. They are,
and you'll see review videos coming out on those.
Speaker 1 (07:04):
Do I need them? No?
Speaker 2 (07:07):
But one benefit of those lenses it gives you more
of an all in one function, and there is truth
to that. But the question remains, when you're gonna drop
seven eight thousand dollars between these two lenses, do you
need them? And if you at home, if I at
home can't realistically look at those lenses and say, yes,
(07:28):
I am going to get a return on this investment.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
This is going to enable me to do this.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I can sell these lenses that I would otherwise use
and just use these instead, and therefore I can at
least break even. I can take these to a wedding
and use this and break even or make money.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Right.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
But when Sony and all these other camera companies come
out with this next generation of A seventy to two
hundred of an eighty five G master of a fifty
millimeter All these they are just making minor modifications to
these lenses because they have hit their market saturation and
the only way for them to generate new sales is
(08:06):
for them to come out with the version two, the
version three, the version four.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Will it be.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know, a little bit sharper, yes, will it perform
a little bit better, yes, Will it be a little
bit lighter, Yes, There's all of those things. But when
something's only ten percent better than what you currently have,
why do you spend so much money to buy it?
That is the part that doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I don't do that.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I don't go and replace my car that barely has
any miles on it just because the brand new car
comes out.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
That's the equivalent of what.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
We do when we buy brand new gear that we
don't need. When photographers are talking about how hard it
is to make money and how people are taking our jobs,
one of the best things you can do, not the
only thing that you can do, but one of the
best ways for you to show up your business is
to not spend unnecessarily. It is far better for you
to take some sort of a training course that you
(09:03):
may need. Not take it from me, take it from
anybody that serves your purpose. But take some sort of
a training course, do something, Go somewhere and.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
Build your portfolio.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Spend that money to go build a portfolio that is
outside of what you currently have. Invest in better websites,
invest in spending, maybe having someone help you with your
social media. Invest your money in different ways. I personally
haven't purchased any new gear in probably four years because
(09:34):
I haven't seen a need for anything. When the A
seven to five comes out, that depending on the specs
of the camera and so on and so forth, that
is one camera that I actually do look forward to
the announcement of.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
But outside of.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
That, I'm not out buying all the brand new G
Master lenses. They aren't necessary, and I'm somebody who does
a ton of shooting, They're just not necessary. Even the
lighting that we're talking about, I don't need all this
brand new lighting unless something really big came out, you know,
like if they really improve the recycle time on flashes
(10:09):
and they really improve their abilities to not overheat, that
would be something that would move the needle enough for
me to want to purchase something new.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
And I even make.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Those same decisions when it comes down to using my
cell phones as cinematic tools, and I do. I own
four iPhones and I use them for all of my
filming purposes. I take the same approach with my action cameras,
and the same approach with my drones and my three
sixty cameras. I use a wide myriad of gear to
be able to produce the results that I create. All
(10:40):
of us go through that stage in our career where
we just get so excited about photography and we convince.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Ourselves and you all know we do it.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
We convince ourselves that we need something and truthfully, eight
nine times out of ten, we don't need it. I'd
be really curious to see what you guys think out
there and ladies, what do you think? What do you need?
Have you fallen into this gear trap? In fact, what
is the worst thing that you've purchased that you didn't need?
(11:10):
Or what are the things that you've purchased and you
immediately knew this is a waste of money. Oh my gosh,
why did I buy this? It's one of the reasons
I even started speaking about gear on YouTube and podcast
and everything else. Because I had a room and a
garage full of stuff that I looked.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
At and said, damn.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
I mean I saw something online and it looked like
a good idea and then I just it was stupid.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I never should have bought it. So I hope this
has helped.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Please give me a ratings, Share the Share the podcast guys.
You know, it's been a long time since I've been
regularly podcasting and YouTube.
Speaker 1 (11:45):
And everything else.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
And one way that you can help to keep this
train rolling is by sharing it, liking it, you know,
putting it all out over the internet, because that really
helps me to get the traction that we need to
keep this train moving in the right direction. So I'm
grateful to all of you. Thank you so much for
listening to Jason Lenar and Filter. We have some really
fun content coming up for you. Also, I'm going to
(12:09):
be hosting a lot of guests on my podcast as well.
If you'd like to be considered to be on my podcast,
if you'd like to, if you think you have something interesting,
or you do some interesting work, or something that you
think would be of value to the podcast and the
listeners out there, please hit me up. I'd love to
hear from you. So until next time, keep shooting, never
give up on your dreams. Find vergether works for you,
(12:30):
and remember you only have.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
One chance to get it right. I'll talk to you
guys later Base